(LifeSiteNews) — South Carolina lawmakers have introduced a flurry of pro-life legislative proposals aimed at strengthening protections for unborn children beyond the state’s current six-week “fetal heartbeat” law. 

The Palmetto State is one of 19 states that have introduced a total of 37 bills since last year that include “personhood” language, aimed at granting all unborn children the full legal rights belonging to all living persons. 

Perhaps the most significant proposal, Senate Bill 781 – commonly referred to as the “Life Begins at Conception Act” – would recognize legal protection for preborn children from the moment of conception rather than from the detection of cardiac activity.

If enacted, the bill would effectively prohibit nearly all abortions in the state, while reportedly retaining limited exceptions in certain circumstances. The measure has been introduced and referred to committee but has not yet been enacted into law.

Likewise, House Bill 3537, known as the Prenatal Equal Protection Act would define embryos at any stage of development as “persons,” ensuring that “an unborn child who is a victim of homicide is afforded equal protection under the homicide laws of the state.”

The South Carolina House Constitutional Laws Subcommittee adjourned without taking action on the bill, leaving the bill languishing in subcommittee.

“South Carolina is a deep-red state with a Republican Governor and Republican supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature. They have no excuse to avoid passing H. 3537, the only bill in South Carolina that would establish equal protection of the laws for preborn babies,” Ben Zeisloft, communications director for the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, told LifeSiteNews. “This legislation would simply apply the laws already protecting born people from murder to preborn babies as well, treating all image-bearers of God as equally valuable and worthy of protection.” 

House Bill 4654 would criminalize forcing a woman into having an abortion against her will.

House Bill 4760 seeks to curb the growing use of abortion-inducing drugs by increasing their regulation and establishing criminal penalties for unlawful distribution. The legislation would allow South Carolina to claim legal jurisdiction over out of state entities shipping or otherwise helping state residents to obtain abortion-inducing drugs.

The bill would classify certain abortion drugs, such as mifepristone and misoprostol, as controlled substances under state law and impose penalties on those who distribute them outside the bounds of existing pro-life protections. 

Supporters say the measure is necessary to prevent chemical abortions from bypassing state safeguards and to further defend unborn life. 

Penalties would range from 5 to 50 years in prison. Administering abortion drugs to a woman without her consent could result in up to a 20-year prison term. 

“South Carolina has been clear: we will protect life. Mailing abortion pills with fewer safeguards, no real medical oversight and no accountability puts women at risk, harms families and devalues human life,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said in a statement. “I applaud the House for standing up for common‑sense protections and for taking another step to defend the most vulnerable.”

Does HB 4760 go far enough?

Some think that proposed laws such as HB 4760 don’t go far enough. 

“This bill protects careers, not babies,” according to Mark Corral, president of Equal Protection South Carolina. “H. 4760 is only a political stunt designed to provide cover for the very politicians who are keeping abortion legal in South Carolina. It allows them to pretend they’re taking action while refusing to establish equal legal protection for every preborn child.”

The legislation advanced in the House earlier this month and awaits further consideration in the Senate.

An associated bill, House Bill 4637 would allow private citizens to sue anyone involved in supplying abortion pills – including manufacturers, distributors – for at least $100,000 per violation.

The proposed bill would also make it a felony to pay for an abortion for a South Carolina resident outside the state.  

Meanwhile, in an article published in January, the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute lamented that the bills seeking to protect preborn lives currently under consideration in South Carolina “represent the most extreme examples of pregnancy criminalization in recent state legislative sessions.”